


Gravity Falls | Let's Find Out

by RandomHuman12



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Anxiety Attacks, Anxiety Disorder, Bisexual Dipper Pines, Depression, Dipper Pines Has Issues, F/F, F/M, Insomnia, Insomniac Dipper Pines, M/M, Mabel Pines has ADHD, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pansexual Mabel Pines, Set two years after cannon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-31
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2020-07-27 17:24:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20049787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RandomHuman12/pseuds/RandomHuman12
Summary: It'd been a while since they'd been there last and they didn't expect much to have changed.But they were wrong.So, so wrong.





	1. Home

**Author's Note:**

> FINALLY got this done this morning!! I hope you all enjoy~

Dipper walked up the mud-covered gravel path, the colours of brown had turned red over time, covering the tiny grey stones.

His eyes swept over the forest, a tinge of fear twisting in his gut at memory's he wished he didn’t have. He took in a large shaky breath, and _god_, just the air was different, it was like it was laced in nostalgia with how it hit his heart.

Gravity Falls had become his home after only spending one summer there, however, it scared him. He’d been hurt there, monsters hiding in the tiniest of shadows, but he’d fought them, he scared them back.

Back in Piedmont he was scared of coming back, the monsters, but now, breathing in fresh air, with Mabel at his side and Soos (he’d driven them there from the bus stop) just behind him, he can tell there's nothing to fear.

“We’re home, Dip-Dip!” Mabel said, a sense of calm to her voice, and at the same time exitment. She was doing what he was doing just a moment prior, her eyes darting around like what she was looking at was a laser pointer and she was a cat.

“Yeah, yeah we are Mabel,” he smiled as his eyes set on the centre of his home, the all so familiar Mystery “S”Hack. Soos hadn’t bothers to put the ‘S’ in the correct place, it seamed.

He didn’t notice Mabel pulling out her phone until there was a small shutter sound, she smiled as he looked to her.

“I never miss a scrap-book opportunity!” she said, and Dipper smiled wider, a small chuckle (witch was more of an exhale than anything) leaving his lips at the distant memory.

“Come on dudes,” Soos said, he didn’t notice the man walking ahead of them until just then, “The Stan Bros are in there waiting for you,”.

“We’re coming!” Mabel called.

Dippers eyes racked around the place once again, maybe that wasn’t a good idea, he thought, when he tensed up at the view of the forest.

Mabel, noticing this, grabbed Dippers hand and squeezed tight, “It’s going to be fine, Dipping sauce!”.

“I-” Dipper sighed, “What if something bad happens?”

“We’ll figure it out, we did it last time, remember?”

“Yeah, Mabel, I remember,” he smiled once again, he hadn’t noticed that it had dropped.

“Let’s go say hi to our Grunkles!”

Mabel, still holding her brothers hand, bolted forward.

  
  


They had only just walked in when “Welcome back!” was yelled at them. It wasn’t unwelcome, of course, it just made Dipper smile wider.

"Hey, guy’s!” Mabel exclaimed, grin matching her twins as her eyes raked the place.

“Hey,” Dipper said, much quieter that Mabel. After Weirdmageddon he was a lot more soft spoken, at least compared to his sister.

The room was quiet for a second, not awkward, not stuffy, just quiet as the other four (‘Other four’ being Wendy, Soos and the Stan brothers) let the two brunettes take in the area.

It was different, that much was expected, they had been gone for three years. Everything also seemed smaller, although they were taller, that, again, was expected.

It seemed that Soos wanted to keep the novelty of the “old” shop, the jar of eyes still stood proud on the counter, and the pine-tree hats still staked up on the shelves (although now there were different coloured ones, from what Dipper could see, there was pink and teal along with eh classic blue). The old Stan bobble heads were now replaced with Soos and Melody ones, poorly painted but still better than the old ones and Dipper shuddered at the sight of grappling hooks in the corner.

Mabel seemingly caught sight of the familiar face of Melody on the plastic toys, letting out a loud: “Soos! Is melody here!? Oh my god! Do you remember the- and- oh! Giffany!” It caused Dipper to flinch, although it didn’t bother him. He was used to it by now, in all honesty, he thought it would be strange without it.

“Oh- uh, no right now, but she said she’d be back next week,” Soos said, a small, seemingly proud, smile on his face, “She’s visiting family,”

Mabel gasped,“Awesome! We didn't really get to know her last time, did we?” she turned her head to meet Dippers eyes, “Oh my gosh, I’m so excited!” she squealed.

“I think everyone knew that, Mabel,” he replied, no real malice behind it, it was more fond.

Mabel playfully punched him in the arm, freezing up as realisation dawned on her face. “OH MY GOSH! I GET TO SEE CANDY AND GRENDA AGAIN!” she squealed, Dipper flinched again and Mabel jumped slightly at her own voice.

“Mabel, are you forgetting us? I’m offended,” Wendy finally spoke, placing a hand on her chest dramatically.  
“Huh? Oh, Wendy, no! I would never!” Mabel responded, guilt lacing her features, just for a second, but it was there.  
“No, no I get it, this insanely cute red-head is easy to forget,” she sighed, dramatically again, sending Dipper a wink.  
“I was twelve, Wendy,” he said, shaking his head with a smile.  
“Are you saying I’m not hot?”  
“She is, Dip-Dip, I mean come on!” Mabel agreed, waving her arms at the red-head to emphasise her point.  
“Okay, fine, Wendy, you’re hot, whatever,” Dipper rolled his eyes, Wendy smiling triumphantly at her success.  
“Meh, you’re not my type,” she chuckled, and Dipper joined her.

They were suddenly aware of the oldest in the room, Mabel gasping as she realised, and Dipper not surprised. “Don’t do that, again,” Stan said, his brother nodding in agreement.  
“It’s not like we’re not gonna talk about it, we’re almost six-teen!” Mabel replied, and although she had a point, Dipper wasn’t to fond about having that conversation.

“She has a point,” Wendy said, mirroring Dippers thoughts, “They’re teenagers, plus! I’m, like, 100% sure you did worse than talking about it at your age,”

“He’s not the best example,” Ford said, and Stan playfully elbowed his twin in the ribs.

“But if we followed yours we’d never get any!” Mabel exclaimed. Dipper cringed, mentally, and physically as Stan stared a howling laugh.

“She got you there, sixer!” he wheezed, Ford shook his head as Stan went over to the counter to support himself.

“Anyway, Dipper,” Dippers attention was in his grunkle’s hands as soon as he said his name, “I made you something for your return,”.

The boy in question was confused until Ford reached into his coat, bringing something out from his pocket. When he saw what ‘it’ was, he was awe struck. His own journal.

It was made with a silver pine tree and dark indigo cover, a number ‘1’ slashed through the reflective silver in black.

“M-my own journal?” he let out, taking it from his grunkle’s hand.

“I thought you would appreciate it,” Ford said, and while Dipper turned it in his hand, he couldn’t help but think ‘I love it’.

“Thank you,” his voice was very close to a whisper.

“Hey! What about me! You can't just give him something! there’s another twin here!” Mabel yelled, affectively changing the atmosphere. Dipper almost thanked her because he didn’t really like to be emotional in front of people. He wiped at his eyes.

“Yeah, well, about that,” Stan said, going behind the counter before coming out with a barrel, “We couldn’t find anything better than this,”.

“Rainbow glitter-” Mabel read, “OH MY GOSH! THIS IS THE BEST GIFT EVER!” the dubbed ‘Stan Bro’s’ deflated in relief. Mabel was hard to buy gifts for, Dipper had to say.

  
  


Walking into the twins old room was a hole new wave of nostalgia Dipper wasn’t prepared for.

He sighed, almost awe-like. Although, that was accompanied with a reminder at how tired he was as he yawned.

He sighed, rubbing his eyes. He’d had trouble sleeping since he was last in this shack, he was used to being tired by now with all the all-nighters he’d had.

That morning he’d told Mabel that he couldn't sleep because he was exited, it wasn’t the first lie he told her when sleep came into things. Even if she didn’t believe him, she didn’t say anything, which he was thankful for.

His eyes continued to scan the room, looking over to what used to be Mabel’s side, he could see sparkles that reflected by the sun. It made him a little upset that they weren’t sharing a room any more, although he understood. It wasn’t like the two shared a room back in Piedmont, that had changed a few months after they returned from their holiday. With Mabel down in the basement, it felt like his twin was further than the door across the hall and in all actuality, she was.

His bed was still on the left side of the room, although it seemed to be a different bed, bigger than the last, the old ratty blanket was still splayed across the mattress. Good thing he brought his own.

Another sigh raked through his body. He walked over to the bed, and sat on it, leaving his plastic blue suitcase on the floor. He put the journal he was so thankful for next to him.

He kicked his legs in the air for a second, looking around for something to do. Then, he stood up and got to work replacing the bedding that he was just sat on.

Even if it was one thing, the room seamed to have more life as he lay down on the fresh blanket. He took of Wendy’s old hat, putting it on the withered bed-side table, something else he wanted to replace.

Closing his eyes for a second couldn’t hurt…

  
  


Dipper awoke when a knock to the door sounded into his room. He didn’t bolt awake, for the first time in a while, he hadn’t had a nightmare.

He was sat up when the door opened and Wendy walked in.

“Hey, Dipper, I’m heading out,” she sighed, watching as Dipper stretched, “I think it’s about time we returned our hats, right?”

Dipper smiled, nodding, “Yeah, it is,”.

Dipper picked up the deep brown hat that would soon be Wendy’s again. He held in in his hand for a second, looking at it, before sighing as he passed it back to Wendy. It felt like a part of his life was ending and other was starting when all that was happening was them swapping hat’s once again.

Wendy was back at the door by the time he’d returned the pine-tree hat to his head. She acted zipping her lips shut and throwing away the key, causing the two to laugh. “Have a great summer, Dipper,”  
“You too, Wendy,” they smiled to each other, before the red head was out the door and closing it, leaving him alone in the room again.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket, checking the time, he’d been asleep for around an hour and a half. Dipper wanted nothing less than to snuggle back into the bed and fall asleep but he knew that wouldn’t be the best of ideas.

So, he stood up and opened the window, the triangle was gone from it, he noticed. He was happy with that.

He then opened his suit case, starting to put his clothes in the closet. He remembered not bothering last time, but now it just felt right.

He also stacked up his text books and note books on the bedside table. Dipper wandered if he would be allowed to get a desk, maybe a book case in the old attic bedroom. Soos would be okay with it, that much he was sure of, but with his grunkle’s back he didn’t know.

Then the door swung open, Mabel in it’s stride. Somehow, she was once again covered in glitter, and spitting it out. Dipper blinked at her, before sighing, “Mabel, did you eat glitter?”

“Uh… maybe?” she said, before she coughed and more glitter came out of her mouth.

“A-huh,”

“I can’t pass it up! Glitter is so pretty!” she said, and Dipper sighed with a fond smile on his face.

“What did you want?” he asked, zipping his suit case shut, putting it in the wardrobe.  
“Why are you assuming I want something?” Mabel replied, putting her hands on her hips.  
“Because you almost always want something,” Dipper said, walking back to his bed and picking up his phone.

“Okay, rude,” she said, although Dipper could tell she wasn’t actually upset, “I just wanted to see if you’d come with to see our friends!”  
“Uh… sure? Who are you thinking about?” he asked, and Mabel smiled wide.

“Pacifica, Candy, Grenda, maybe Wendy later if she wants! I asked Soos but he said he was busy,”

“Cool,” Dipper rubbed his eyes again.

“You doing okay Dipping Sauce?”

“Uh, yeah, I just took a nap, so I’m a little tired,”

“Oh, good!” Mabel said, “Should we go then?”

“Sure- but… uh, what if I brought the journal?”

“We could go into the woods!” Mabel said, clasping her hands on her cheeks and gasping.

“Yeah, we could get pictures of the animals for it,” Dipper replied.

Mabel stood there for a second, her hands dropping to her sides as Dipper picked up his journal.

“Mabel?”

The girl shook her head, “Yeah! We can!”.

Dipper chuckled.

  
  


After saying their bye’s to their grunkle’s and Soos, who had just started a tour, the Mystery Twins were stood out on the patio of the shack.

“Who first?” Dipper asked, looking to his sister as she fumbled with her phone.

“Pacifica's,” she chided and Dipper nodded.

His brows furrowed when he noticed a black security camera in the corner where the roof started.

“Hey, Mabel, where do you think that came from?” he asked, and Mabel looked up. She shrugged.

“Probably Ford, or Melody, I dunno,”

“O...okay,” he said, opting to ask later if he remembered.

  
  


“How do you know she still lives here?” Dipper asked, a little worried in case they had the wrong place. Plus, hadn’t Pacifica and her family been kicked out of the mansion?

“Because~” his sister said, smile on her face, “She posted this on her Insta a year ago,”

Mabel showed him a picture of Pacifica standing in front of the gates, smile on her face that looked overly forced. Her parents either side of her, they held up a sign that said ‘Northwest Mannor (Once Again)’. Dipper noticed that Mabel hadn’t liked the photo.

“Oh,”

On the edge of gate there was a speaker, a button, and a small hole Dipper assumed to be the microphone. His sister pressed the small silver button and bit her lip.

It wasn’t long until a tired voice came from the speaker, “Northwest residence?”.

“Pacifica?”

“Mabel!?”

“Yeah! Dipper’s here too- we wanted to see if you wanted to come out?”

“Uh, yeah, sure, just give me a sec,” it sounded like she was smiling, Mabel was too.

It wasn’t long until the gates opened with a load creak and Pacifica was walking down the path to her house.

The first thing she did when she got to them was give Mabel a hug, and Mabel happily returned it. She then gave Dipper a hug too, although she was a lot more hesitant.

“You’re here!” she said, “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”

“I wanted to surprise you!” Mabel chided.

It wasn’t a secret that the two had stayed in touch, not to Dipper at least. Practically everyday Mabel would tell Dipper something Pacifica had sent her over Instagram.

“We were planning on going monster hunting, you okay to come with?”

“Uh, yeah,” Pacifica replied, smiling. There were words in the air that Dipper couldn’t catch.

“Great! ‘Cuz Dip-Dip needs some new stuff for his new journal!”

“...New, journal?” Pacifica asked, looking over at Dipper.

“Oh! Uh, yeah,” he took the book out of his pocket, showing it off with a new-found sense of pride.

“Cool,” Pacifica said, a smile on her face. She meant it and if Dipper was being honest, that meant a lot in that moment.

  
  


After picking up the last two girls, Candy and Grenda, who were at the same house, the five stood on the forest line. It was eerie… and that scared Dipper. It scared him to all hell because the only time they were scared of this place was when… Bill had happened. He felt something twist in his gut, he wasn’t sure what but…

Then Mabel started marching towards the pine-tree’s that had dropped a few shades since they were kids.

“Mabel!” Candy called, jogging up to the other teen and grabbing her arm, “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

Mabel giggled, “It’s fine! We used to do this all the time as kids- what’s so different now?”

They were scared. That was the difference.

No one said it, though, and Dipper had the feeling they were about to make a terrible decision.

“O-okay guys!” Grenda said, almost a war yell, “Let’s do this!” it did nothing to shake the fear, but still, they all marched on into the dark forest of Gravity Falls.

  
  


A few minuets later and they were laughing and joking as they strolled in the shadowed woods as if they didn’t have a fear in the world. Dipper liked it that way, he remembered looking around at school in California and seeing kids just like they were now, then it was just him and Mabel but now… he smiled.

“Then one time, Dipper came form behind the tree and went; BLAH! And I went: AH! I got so scared I spilled my dorito’s all over the grass!”

“Oh, so now you admit you were scared,”

“Pfftt- I was for one SECOND- Oh,” she said, pushing her arm out in front of the other four, almost protecting them, “Hi Jeff,” she said, a shocked and also… awkward expression on her face.

“Mabel! Is that you?” the gnome squeaked, falling over onto his butt.

“Uh… yeah,” there was a second of silence, “How’s it been?”

“Good! We got a new queen, if you were wandering…” Jeff said, standing up, “Names Susan,”

“Wait… Dinner Susan?” Pacifica said, and Jeff shrugged.

“Maybe,”the gnome shrugged, “I don’t know,”

“Uh...” Mabel said, another short silence before she spoke again, “Can I take a picture of you? We need it for Dippers journal,”

“What’s a picture?”

“Oh- it’s like a drawing, but quicker, if that makes sense,”

“Okay… I guess,” after he said that, Mabel held up her phone, and a small shutter noise left it.

“Thanks Jeff!” she said, “We’re just gonna… go now,” an awkward chuckle left her and then, they walked past the gnome stood on the forest floor.

  
  


“So… what’s the deal with you and that guy?” Pacifica said, only after a moment of silence.

“He tried to make me the gnome queen- Wait! That was the first monster we ever met!” Mabel said, making a connection in her mind that Dipper didn’t quiet get. “He was the first one we saw again!” she finished,

“Oh, yeah,” Dipper said, smile on his face which was soon replaced with a frown when they all heard a large growl.

It seemed as if that had re-installed the fear they had before going into the forrest however, Dippers left when he heard someone shushing the source of the noise.

“Shut up! How are we supposed to get food if you’re always yelling!” and then there was a smaller growl, which was closer to a whimper.

“Wait...” Dipper said, “I think I know that voice,”

“What?” Candy said, her voice a hushed yell.

Dipper walked ahead of the group, although they stayed close behind him. He walked out behind a tree, finding an almost empty clearing.

“Who goes there!?” he yelled, and Dipper knew it was him when the noise echoed around the forest.

“Uh… multi-bear? It’s me, Dipper,” he said, the bear itself looking confused and tilting his head, causing the other bears to make a groan like roar.

“Who?” he asked, inspecting him. It made sense, Dipper thought, he’d changed since he’d seen Multi-Bear last.

“The- uh… dancing girl kid,” he could hear Mabel snort behind him.

“Ah! You,” the bear said, familiarity settling on his face, “It’s been a while,”

“Uh… yeah, it has. Three,”

There was a pause, silence. Not an awkward one, a fear filled one. Which didn’t make sense to Dipper, he knew Multi-Bear just… there was something off about him, the way he was acting.

“…The last time you were here,” the bear started, “You and your friends fought The Demon, and I do thank you for that. However, since that day, these woods have been… stranger, I do believe these things are connected,”

And there was the fear, thrashing around in Dipper stomach like a snake trying to be set free.

“…Oh,”

“H-hey, thanks for the warning and all, but that’s not why we’re here. I think.” Mabel stated, stepping out from behind her brother, “I was wondering if I could take a picture of you? My Dipper has a brand new journal of his own now,” Mabel was bouncing on the balls of her feet, she hadn’t been able to put her phone away from the encounter with Jeff so she was still holding it.

“Alright,” Multi-Bear said, seemingly happy with the change in topic.

Mabel ended up taking a few pictures, which thankfully lightened the mood.

“Okay! We’ve gotta go now- more animals to find and all,” Mabel said, the bear nodded. They all said their goodbyes, even Pacifica, which in all honesty Dipper wasn’t expecting. Dipper knew she had changed, yeah, he knew. Still, it was strange seeing it in real life, especially when the contact with her was limited to telling Mabel he said hi or being in the back of their calls. “Who knew he could be so photogenic!”

“He did, probably,” Candy commented, Grenda nodding along.

“I’m very photogenic!” Grenda yelled, “Mabel! Take a picture of me!”

“Let’s all take a selfie- no, let’s take a LOT of them!” Mabel chirped and everyone agreed with a chime of ‘Yeah!’.

So, they did, including Dipper, which he honestly wasn’t expecting. When they were done Mabel was swiping through her phone, the others looking over her shoulder when Dipper saw-

“Hey wait a minuet-” he started.

“It’s that a spirit orb?” him and Candy said in unison. The girl looked to him and smiled, “Ghosts are like, my thing now,”

“Oh, cool,” Dipper smiled back.

Then Pacfica yawned, Mabel’s attention snapping away from her phone in a split second. “You okay?” she asked, and Pacifica gave her a kind smile.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,”

“You sure?”

“Mhm,” Mabel narrowed her eyes at the blond.

“One more monster and we’re done for the day, okay?”

Everyone nodded in agreement. Dipper was pretty sure it was already night, they had arived in Gravity Falls in the early afternoon, and it had been a few hours before he and Mabel left to say hi to their friends and even then it’d been at least half an hour.

“Mabel, what time is it?”

“Huh- Oh! It’s- woah, it’s half seven already!” she said, must have been longer than half and hour in the woods then…

“Right, so are we just gonna… wander for a while?” Candy said, bouncing on the balls of her feet.#

“I guess,” Dipper shrugged.

  
  


Half and hour later they were still wandering the forrest, cracking jokes and laughing just as they had before. But then Pacifica stopped dead in her tracks, staring into a clearing. No one knew why until they followed her eyes.

“Oh,” Mabel said, shocked. A shiver ran down Dippers spine, “Should I take a picture or...”

“I-I think we should go,” Grenda said, Dipper was inclind to agree.

“Y-yeah,” Pacifica said, stuttering, “We should,”

Everyone shared a look, a worried glance, before their eyes trailed back to h- … it.

It was Bill’s statue. Of course, Dipper knew it was there before he left but seeing it was a hole new thing. Looking at the sone eye glaring back at him like he’d ruined something. Like it was alive. Another shiver.

They all knew that they should’ve left but they couldn’t will themselves to move. Were they recieveing the same glare, or was it different? Dipper didn’t want to know.

Candy was the one to say something, a shuddering breath leaving her, “Let’s go, okay?”

“Yeah,” Mabel said and they set off.

  
  


Dipper and Mabel had dropped the other three back at their homes, Pacifica had given Mabel a hug and Dipper a smile while Candy and Grenda gave them big smiles, and a “See you tommorow!” before locking themselves up in Candy’s house.

Now Dipper was laid on his bed, he knew that he should be going to sleep but he just kept staring up at the ceiling, wishing it to move or for a triangle to be present that he really, really didn’t want to see… but another part of him did. Another part was screeming to see the demon again and a Dipper could do was roll over and hope he slept.

…

he did.

Now, Dipper was used to the nightmares, the shock horror that was nothing but a reminder of what had happened.

What he wasn’t used to was the…

Bill was laughing and cackling, it was growing louder as he chased him and Mabel through the halls of the structure he’d built for himself.

“Time to make some children into corpses!” he yelled but that wasn’t exactly his voice. Dipper remembers it, how could he forget? No, that voice wasn’t familiar in the slightest.

He had reached a dead end, he didn’t know where his twin had gone, but he was backed up against a cold wall as he stared.

That wasn’t Bill… that was something more sinister, something more terrifying, somehow it scared him _more_ than Bill had.

The woman- she looked human, but she wasn’t, she wasn’t anything close, chuckled, deep and low.

“Now, now,” she said, exitment held in her voice that scared him even more, “What do we have here?”

Bill didn’t scare him any more. She did.

Dipper didn’t know who that was, all he could remember when he sat bolt upright, waking up, was the eyes.

The eyes that had been seared into his mind and he didn’t think would ever leave.

His breath heaved as he sobbed, when was the last time he’d cried out of _fear_?

He didn’t remember the running, didn’t even remember Bill, all he could remember was the eyes. The eyes that could be compared to blood, like it was oozing out of her sockets or she’d been injured. It would scare him less if it was just a ring of red around black, but it wasn’t.

He remembered the eyes that were nothing but red… nothing but blood.


	2. Panic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper goes for a walk.

Dipper still couldn’t breath, his lungs scrambling for purchase but it felt as if nothing was getting into his them. He remembered it then- the numbers.

What was it again?

He didn’t really remember, but still, he tried to count. He breathed in through his nose. He did all that and when his breathing was calm he still felt panicked, he still felt scared.

He let out a groan, that was closer to a whimper than anything, and reached out to his bedside table. All he could think of was the time, all he wanted to think off. It was- five am? It felt like he’d been asleep for way less time than that, that dream felt like it’d been ten minuets long but… what dream?

He shook the thought from his head. He’d think about it later- maybe even talk to Ford about it. All it was doing right now was making him panic.

However, the more he tried to stop thinking about it, the more he was scrolling through his phone, the more he did think about it.

So he got up, trying his best not to go back to gasping for air, and wondered over to his closet. He needed to get dressed. Yeah, he could go get a shower and then go for a walk. That sounded right.

When the boiling hot water began beating on his back, the anxiety and fear started to die down. Like it was fizzling away and turning into the steam slowly fanning around him. 

He took a deep breath, Dipper could see the cool blue sky through the small square window in the room, he could see the top of trees, the skyline. It was… beautiful. That was just what Gravity Falls was to him. It was home. However, he had a feeling that something… some one was threatening it.  
The eyes.

He shook his head before stepping out of the shower and getting changed.

Having a shower always made him feel better, it was just something about the water sprinkling down on him that calmed him. He looked in the mirror, fiddling with the zipper on his deep orange hoodie. It was a big and comfortable one he’d gotten a year ago, it’d soon become one of his favourites. He knew he’d need a warm one when he looked outside, Summer mornings are always cold.

He poked at his cheek and tugged the skin. He wondered what it’d be like to wear make-up, he’d talk to Mabel about it. He knew she did, she loved using bright colours, and over time she’d gotten really good at it all.

He then sighed, walking away from the mirror and out of the room.

Dipper left a note in the kitchen in case someone woke up to him being gone, he didn’t want to worry them. He stepped out of the shack through the front door, smiling and sighing at the morning air. It was another thing that calmed him; a lot in Gravity Falls did, however, a lot in Gravity Falls scared him. He considered walking throughout the streets, maybe going by the dinner, but then he shook his head. That didn’t feel right. 

He decided to go back into the forest, he wasn’t really sure why, but the tree’s seamed like the right place.

So, he walked into the woods that was less shaded than the night before. Of course, that was normal, it was darker, right? Right… yeah. Of course…

He heard the odd chirping of birds, it was strange as usual, this is Gravity Falls, after all. He heard that and he heard the crunches of leafs under his feat, and the snapping of twigs. He was calm now, that he was grateful for.

He had his phone in his pocket, he kept feeling it shift and that was the only worry he had. That it’d slip out and crack on the dirt ground.

He smiled when he saw a glowing pink dot fly by. It the stopped and Dipper saw it for what it was, a fairy.

“Who’re ya’?” they asked, light tone to their voice.

“Uh, Dipper, Pines,”

“Ah, One’o the Pine’ kids, are ya’?”

“I-I guess,”

“Ya’ an’ t’a girl, Mabel, yea’?”

“Uhm.. yeah, she’s my twin,”

“So ya’ know, ‘bout t’a demon t’en?”

“We fought him,” his brow furrowed, “Why?”

“Yea’, yea’ t’a M’st’ry T’ins,” they smiled, “Yer pop’lar ‘round t’ese pa’ts, ma’ mums a fan,”

“Thank… you?”

“I’ve been told t’a tell ya’ ‘bout t’a weird ‘tuff t’ats been goin’ on,”

“What has been going on? I mean I heard the woods have been weird but...”

“T’a t’ees be’ bleadin’,” Dipper’s eyes widened, “Ma’ Gran t’inks it’ t’a sap, I don’ t’ink so, run’s ta’ fast,” they sighed then, glumly, their face changed, they were… sad, “Crea’rs bee’ d’in’, too, we try’d everytin’ spells, traps, n’thin’ work’d,” they’re eyes almost glazed over, “T’ey just… keep goin’,”

“…I’ll talk to my family about it, we’ll try out best to help,”

“T’ank ye’,” they said, small smile displayed on their face, “Wont’ blame ya’ if yer cannae do n’thin’,” Dipper nodded.

“Someone probably will,”

“Now t’eres no dou’t ‘bou’ t’at,” they shook a little, “G’t ‘ta go, see ya’ Pines,”

“See you, uh….”

“Ya’ can call me’ Danny, t’ats w’at ma’ friends call me,”

“Okay, Danny… I’ll try to sort this out,”

“O’cours’,” they flew away.

Dipper took in a shuddering breath, he was almost scared again. Almost. He could deal with that, though, he could go to Ford and Mabel, even Stan. He sighed. He’d think about that later, too. He wanted to take a nice relaxing walk, not learn about a new problem to face… yet. 

So, he ignored it. If there was one thing Dipper knew about himself was that he was suborn. He wouldn’t stop his walk for a demon, or a problem. Let him have a second to relax.

He had continued to stroll, although it wasn’t relaxing any more. He, again, couldn’t stop thinking about the eyes. He was scared, and anxious, and pissed off about it.

Dipper found himself back there. He didn’t know how, he didn’t want to be there, but he was. He was back with the stony eye staring back.

He bit his lip, he didn’t exactly know why but he wasn’t scared of it any more. He felt like something else was scarier. 

He sat down in the grass, grabbing it and pulling it through his fingers.

“…It’s been a while,” Dipper said, it was quiet, a whisper, “I don’t like you, I don’t forgive you for what you did,” he was gasping for air already, when did he get so… scared, “But I think something worse is coming, is here, and honestly? If you’re there, if you could help… you should,” tears left his eyes, only when he saw a bout of blue flames. 

No, he wasn’t seeing things, that was there. He backed up, and soon enough his back hit a tree, he gulped and stood up.

He ran. He ran and he ran home.

When he got back to the shack he was hyperventilating. What did that mean? What was that? He could barley think.

Soon enough he found himself in the kitchen, sat at the small table, grabbing at his hair. He kept trying to count but after a while he couldn’t, he really couldn’t. All he could feel was a stuffy feeling in his head as if his brain had been replaced with cotton. It almost hurt.

He didn’t know when, or how, but there was someone there, stood beside him with their hand on his back.

“C’mon, kid, you gotta breath,” Stan? “No- that’s the opposite,” the man said after Dipper’s breath hitched. Dipper let out something close to a whine, “Dipper? Dipper, I’m gonna need you to look at my chest, okay? Try breath along with me,”

“I-I can’t,”

“You’ve gotta try, okay?” Stan said, grabbing Dipper by the shoulders to make him look at him- well, his chest.

He tried his best and it paid off. 

“You okay?” Stan asked, he gave him a worried look.

“Y-yeah,”

“You gonna tell me what that was about?”

“Uh...” Dipper took in another shaky breath, “No..?”

“Okay, tell you when you can,” Stan smiled, standing up fully. They could both hear his back crack. “You should go talk with Ford- talk that nerd stuff,”

“O-okay,” Dipper nodded and stood up. The two shared a glance before he left the room, going behind the vending machine.

Dipper knew that they were changing the area but honestly, he wasn’t expecting this.

It was much more lab-like, the wall between what had been the portal room and the controls was gone, Now there were rows upon rows of tables, covered in all sorts of experiments. It made Dippers hands itch- this was so cool.

“Dipper!” Ford called, “What brings you here?”

“Uh- I need to talk to you,” he shivered. He did have a reason, although it had only just come to mind.

“Oh? What is it?” there was smoke wafting around the man’s jaw as he walked over. 

He dragged out a couple of chairs from one of the many tables and sat on one. Dipper sat on the other.

“I have a feeling,” Dipper began, before taking a deep breath, “That something… worse is here?”

He could practically see the thoughts Ford was reviewing in his head, “Can you elaborate?”

“… right, so, I had this dream last night,” Dipper took is a gasp of air, “I-I don’t remember anything from it… but… the eyes,”

“What do you mean?” 

“T-there were these eyes, and they were so… angry? No, uh… they… they were planning something,” Ford put his hand on Dippers shoulder, “They… found it funny, the fear, l-like Bill, but it was… so much worse,”

“What colour were they?”

“…Red, why?” Ford shook his head.

“It’s just a theory, I’ll look into it, okay? Don’t worry,” Dipper gave him a smile, “Do you want to work on something?” he swung his arm, showing off the lab.

“Yeah! Yeah, I’d love to,” Ford smiled, standing up. Dipper followed, “But- uh, you know where Mabel is?”

“She’s out with her friends, she left not long ago,”

“Okay,”

“I have so many projects we could work on,”

They worked in the lab for hours after that and god was it fun. It felt like a missed opportunity, both him and Mabel could’ve been doing this for years by now but he knew that they needed to go home. It just… had to happen. None of that really mattered, they were there now.

It was half two when they finally left the lab, going up into the shack to get some late lunch. Dipper quickly realised he hadn’t eaten anything as soon as he’d entered the kitchen, Ford had told him to sit down while he made something.

Then Mabel came crashing into the room, “Hey Dip-Dip!” she gasped, “Hey Ford! Can you make me something too!”

“Sure,” Mabel sat at the table, next to her brother. 

“I have to talk to you later,” Dipper whispered into her ear and the girl nodded. 

“So what have you nerds been up to?” she asked, bright smile on her face as usual.

“We were working on the-”

“Blah, nerd stuff,” she said, “I should’ve thought,”

“Oh, so you think something that permanently puts glitter on something is nerd stuff?” Dipper said, and Mabel gasped.

“What-”

“-I guess you’ll never see it, Mabel, sucks too, you would’ve loved it,”

“No! Okay, I take it back! Not nerd stuff!”

“You should come down to the lab sometime, Mabel,” Ford put a plate down in front of the two that held sandwiches. Ford turned around, grabbed his own plate, then sat down with the teenagers.

They talked while they ate, it was fun, Dipper truly forgot how much he missed Ford, and Stan, of course. When they were done, all three had smiles one their face and Mabel wasn’t done laughing at a joke she’d just said.

“I’m going to go back to the lab, are either you going to join me?”

“Nah! I wanna see what Dipper’s done with his room!”

“And I guess that means I’m going with her,”

It almost felt wrong to lie to his grunkle, but over the years Dipper had to get used to lying, even to his only best friend back at home. Mabel and he had learnt to lie in perfect sync, they had to, really. It wasn’t like they could tell people why triangles made the jump.

The older man didn’t seem to catch on with the lie and Dipper was thankful for that.

“Okay, I’ll see you two later,”

When they were upstairs and in what used to be their room, Mabel tutted before closing the door. “Is this really all?”

“What- Mabel that’s not why you’re here!”

“Yeah, but still! This is so boring!”

“You were literally in here yesterday!”

“I thought you would’ve done more by now!” Dipper shook his head, laughing and Mabel joined in too. “What did you want to talk about?”

He shook, “Right, yeah,” Dipper bit his lip, “I-I went for a walk this morning and I went to see the statue,”

Mabel’s brows furrowed, “Why?”

“I-I had a dream, last night, okay? And I saw… these eyes,”

“Eyes? Not… eye?” she sat down on Dippers bed. He started fiddling with his zipper again.

He nodded, “Yeah, eyes, they were… red, like, not yellow, they weren’t Bills… they were… are worse,”

“Okay,” Mabel sucked in a breath, “So, you went to see the statue?”

“A-huh, yeah… I kinda, said that if he could… he should help,”

“Mhm,”

“And then… I saw fire,”

“What!? Are you sure,” she said, and Dipper jumped at her sudden yell.

“Y-yeah, Mabel, I’m sure,”

“You’re 100%- like, you weren’t seeing things?”

“Mabel! Trust me- I wasn’t,” he was surprised he wasn’t having a panic attack by then, maybe it was because Mabel was there, “I saw it, it was right over the hand! Like normal!”

“…Do you think he’s back?”

Tears prickled at his eyes, “I-I don’t know… I just… it’s… scary,” Mabel nodded.

“Yeah, yeah! Of course it is, Bro-Bro! You said the eyes were worse than Bill, right?”

“A-huh,”

“Of course you’re going to be scared, Dip-Dip!” se jumped up out of the bed, “It’s… really scary,” she wrapped her arms around her brother, who hugged her back.

“We should’ve told Wirt,” Mabel snorted.

“Of course you think that,” she unwrapped her arms, she was shifting where she stood, “I don’t think I can sleep in a room alone, tonight,”

“You wanna stay in here?”

“Mhm,”

“Good, I think I wouldn’t be able to sleep either,” they shared smiles.

They would do that sometimes, share a room. When Dippers nightmares were particularly bad, he’d knock on Mabel’s door. When Mabel had been crying all night and couldn’t call Pacifica, she’d knock on his. That was the lasting affect of Weirdmageddon, it seemed. They’d never stopped it, even if Dipper thought he would buy now. It was nice knowing someone was there for him and he was sure his sister felt the same. 

“What did you do today?”

“Oh- Me, Pacifica and Grenda walked around town, Candy couldn’t come out because she had to practice the Cello- she can play the cello! isn’t that cool! We can play together!”

“Wait, you still play the piano?”

“Uh- duh!” she sat back onto her twins bed, “What else do you think I do every afternoon?”

“Play the drums,”

“Oh, right,”

“Exactly,”

“Okay, but you, Wirt and Candy would make an amazing band!” Mabel said, “The Classics,” she finished with a sense of wonder.

“Wirt’s more of a poetry guy,” Dipper sighed. “...Also that’s a terrible band name,”

“No it’s not!” Mabel chirped.

That’s how they spent their evening, talking together about home and friends and maybe even having a few playful arguments. IT was how they spent most nights.

When it came time to sleep Mabel left to go get some bedding and when she came back she threw it to the ground.

“Night-night, Dipper,” she yawned.

“Goodnight Mabel,”

Dipper didn’t have a nightmare that night. Or maybe he did, he just didn’t remember.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was a lot shorter, sorry, I just couldn't get it longer!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed!


	3. Hello?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katherine Adlewood gets introduced.

Katherine Adlewood was a strange girl and there was no doubt about it. Everyone she’d ever met thought so, they were probably jealous of her determination, or at least, that’s what she thought.

They just thought that she was strange because of her to-wide eyes and the fact she said she could talk to ghosts, which she could, of course, but they didn’t believe that.

_Anyone can talk to ghosts, don’t you know?_

She never minded the comments that other people tended to say, she just charged on in her life. So now here she is, all magical items she’d collected over the years packed into her back-pack, along with her clothes and all the money she had.

She’d taken her whole life across the country to come to the small town of Gravity Falls in Oregon. It wasn’t well known, in fact, if someone asked you about it you’d shrug.

Katherine wasn’t like that, though. She went out to find the small places and things that actually worked, that were real. It took her a year or two but now she was here, in Gravity Falls, a place that was filled to the brim with magic that she could just _feel_.

It was a whole new experience that she was more than ready to have. She’d been waiting for something like this her whole life and in no way, shape, or form would she pass this up.

She sucked in a breath as she looked around the small summer home she’d be staying in. It was above a bar that, for some reason, didn’t allow minors in but did allow kids, which confused her but she didn’t mind.

It was the cheapest place she could find, she’d be renting it for the summer from the person who runs the bar, his name was Robby, he seemed kind enough.

“-And if anything happens, feel free to ask,”

“Okay!” she chirped, “So- uh…” she began, eyes skirting around the small place, “You don’t live here?”

“Nah, my room-mate and I live in a small house, by the woods,”

“Nice,” Katherine gave him a large smile, “I’ll see you around, I guess,”

“Mhm,” he hummed, “See ya’,” and he was gone.

The place was small and dingy, a tiny kitchen that shared the room with a living room, a bathroom and a bedroom but it was enough for her.

She set her back-pack on the small ratty sofa, putting her hands on her hips as she surveyed the place.

She tied her hair back and got to work making the place look better and brighter, brushing away cob-webs (letting the spiders outside), mopping up the floors, rearranging things and so on and so forth.

By the time it was the evening the place looked really good and Katherine couldn’t help the pride she felt in herself for that. It was one skill she was always good at, cleaning. Although she didn’t really like it, whenever she cleaned a place up it looked better than ever.

Katherine grabbed her back-pack.

She made way down the stairs that lead into the bar, shivering slightly before leaving it. That place gave her a feeling, like it was a predecessor to something that had come, or was coming. She shook her head, a small smile on her freckled face.

Gravity Falls felt strange and Katherine couldn’t help but think she belonged there. She didn’t know if it was a good strange or not, or if there was such a thing as good or bad strange, but she felt it, just as she felt the wind in her face and ruffling up her hair.

She found herself at a grocery shop and smiled, walking in, she looked around the place.

Everything was relatively cheap, Katherine was thankful for that, and she got herself some food… along with a key-chain with ‘Gravity Falls’ covering it. Technically she was a tourist, so what was wrong with getting touristy things?

Walking back, she held a plastic back firmly in her hand and she felt her back-pack jostle with every step.

Then she heard a noise.

It wasn’t footsteps, she knew it wasn’t the moment she heard it. She looked down a small alley-way and saw something move, fast.

“Hello?” she asked, turning her head to look into the area.

“Hello?” whatever it was mimicked, not in a rude way, as if it was trying to learn…

Then someone accidentality walked into her (Katherine didn’t drop anything, thankfully), making her look away.

When she looked back the shadowed creature was gone, she suppressed a shudder.

When she got back she put everything where they needed to be and she plopped down on the tiny sofa.

She pulled out her phone and started an audio recording.

“I was going to get food this evening and something in an alley-way caught my attention, I don’t think it was human, or a ghost, so that’s new!” she’ d began smiling, “Oh- this is so cool, it was repeating me! It was learning what I said,” she looked around the room, “I don’t know if it was a good thing but that just proves it was all right- Gravity Falls _is _a weird town!”

She stopped the recording and played it back. She could hear the noises the people in the bar were making along with her voice, but she could still hear her voice and that was what mattered.

She stood up, deciding to make herself something to eat and then go to bed. Katherine wanted to do something, as usual, wanted to stay up and record all she could see, but she convinced herself that she could do everything she wanted after she had some rest.

Yeah, Gravity Falls was a weird town and Katherine Adlewood fit right in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was another short chapter (really short compared to the others) for two reasons;  
One) I don't think people want to hear about the O.C. (the only reason this chapter exists is because she's vital to the storyline)  
and  
Two) It didn't need to be any longer than it is.


	4. Regularly Unordinary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper discovers more that he can add to the begining of an investigation.

It had been a few days since Dipper had a nightmare, or, at least, one that he remembered. It concerned him that he’d possibly have a nightmare he wasn’t aware of, the looming feeling that something… bad was going to happen still hadn’t left his thoughts.

He swung on his chair, yawning. He’d been able to sleep, yeah, but it felt as if the sleep he got didn’t translate. What exactly did he see then? Dipper honestly didn’t know, the eyes are all that lingered in his mind and even then those almost weren’t eyes. What were they? He didn’t know that either.

An unsettling feeling started to pool in his stomach, his eyes were heavy and he was powerless to simply move his arms. It was almost like he was paralysed. “Pine-tree...” He wanted to whip his head around, to see where that voice was coming from. There was a laugh, “Are you scared? Oh… Pine-tree...” the voice echoed, it was deep- not as deep as Grenda’s, no, but it was deep.

He saw it then. 

A figure. It looked human but it was far from it. Pale skin that was just too pale, eyes oozing blood that should’ve been fractured against the walls, for a split second it was.

Then, it was gone.

“Excuse me?” Dipper eyes fled from where they were pointed and to the confused face of a costumer.

“Wh- Oh, sorry, yeah, what do you need?”

“I just wanted to… pay for my stuff…” the person dragged their words out, as many confused people do, and Dipper nodded.

“Right,” they placed their items on the counter. One of the teal pine-tree hats and three key-chains.

He counted the prices (There was still no scanner, it came up to $7.54) and passed them their items back. He sighed to himself as they paid and rushed off. They seemed to be busy. 

Dipper sighed once again as a message came up on his phone; he was so startled that he almost fell out of his chair. He opened the notification and saw that it was from his friend, Wirt. A small smile came to his face, a panicked one, yes, but still a smile. Wirt was asking if he was okay, and in typical Wirt fashion had over-thought his message and made it entirely grammatically correct (Wirt had admitted to doing so before, now it was easy to detect when it happened). That alone made Dipper chuckle to himself as he quickly wrote out a response with shaky hands.

“OH DIPPER!” Was the second thing to break him out of his train of thought, “It’s a-me, Mabel!” his sister said, jumping up to the counter with a wide smile on her face, “With some Mabel News of her own, AND! To tell you that your shift has officially ended,”

Dipper nodded and got down from the chair, letting Mabel sit there instead. Her eyes scanned the shop before landing back on her sibling. “SO! Guess what!”

“What?” He responded, Mabel shoved her phone in his face in response.

“LOOK WHAT PACIFICA SENT ME!” 

“Mabel I can’t even see your phone-” she took it back a little, “-Thank you… is that… a heart emoji?”

“Yup!” 

“Uh- cool… weren’t you just hanging out with her?”

“I-I mean yeah! But! Dipper,” she groaned dramatically, “SHE SENT A HEART!”

“God, please don’t tell me that you're-”

“Oh, Pacifica,” his sister looked longingly into her phone, “How I love thou, although I shall never tell you in fear that thou will reject me!”

“For the fifty-th time Mabel, she won't,”

“You do not know that dear brother!” she stood on the counter, something Stan wouldn’t be fond of if he saw, “She could say that she doesn’t feel the same! I must not do that to thyself!”

“Mabel,” Dipper chuckled, “I’m sure she does,”

“Shut up Pinecone,” Mabel had come up with that name to describe Dipper and Wirt’s relationship.

“For the last time- I don’t like Wirt!”

“You do though,”

“No. I don’t.” 

“Say what you will brother,” She lied down on the counter, which was much harder than when she was younger due to her being taller, “I know your secrets,”

Another notification came in through his phone and he looked back to it. Wirt, again. His face flushed as he noticed Mabel looking too. “Hey- stop it,” he pulled his phone away from her and she chuckled.

“Look, Dipper,” she sighed, “You might not like him, although I doubt that, but he surely likes you,” 

Dipper sighed, “Whatever,” he walked over to the door of the shack, “Have fun on our shift!” he smiled at her before leaving, the interaction effectively calmed him down.

The outside air was almost as warm as it had been inside, he sighed before shrugging off his jumper and tying it around his waist. He was going to type up a quick reply to Wirt before a familiar fairy came zooming by.

“Pines!” they yelled, rushing up to his face. For a second Dipper could see the worried and panicked expression on his acquaintances face, a small amount of red smeared on their face too. It was blood, wasn’t it? “Do ye’ ha’e an answer yet?” they momentarily grabbed onto his checks but soon let go.

“Uh- Danny, no we don’t- Are you okay? What happened?” he rushed out, the fairy glared around, worried. 

“Follow me,” they sighed, “To ta’ f’rest,” Dipper nodded.

Each step towards the forest line the area around him got darker. He didn’t know if it was because of the large, towering trees or another force coming into play. The feeling in his gut said the latter, his logic said the former. He settled on a… unhealthy mix of the two. 

After a few minutes Danny hadn’t uttered a word, instead forcing themselves slower to keep up with Dippers slow pace. He spared them a look and they looked back. They were clearly scared and Dipper was… confused. Danny just kept fluttering their wings as they charged forward.

Then, they were there. Or, Dipper assumed so, he didn’t know where Danny was taking him, specifically. “I-I usually woul’n’t show anyone t’is,” they mummer, although in the eerily quiet forest Dipper could hear them clearly. “B-but… I t’ink t’is’ll help.”.

The two found themselves in a clearing. Only a few strands of sunlight made its way to the centre as it was so small, the trees crowding the area. Although Dipper knew why he was there as soon as he saw it. 

A limp, tiny body was in the centre. It’s neck was obviously broken, it almost looked as if they had fallen as they had a broken wing, too. Although this couldn’t have been an accident, there was one huge, glaring issue that made that fact clear. The body's eyes were gone. The overly large eye sockets void of any sight. Dipper didn’t realise that he’d been staring at the body, not in horror, even if it was real, these things didn’t really scare him. Seeing Bill when he was a kid really helped that part. Still, when he realised his staring was when he heard a sob.

He turned his head to the small fairy, who was still just above his head. Danny was crying, not the pretty crying you saw in media. Ugly, horrendous sobs racked through the small body as they held their hand to their face.

“Did you know them?”

Danny sniffled and nodded, “Mah Gran,”

“Oh,” Dipper looked back to the body. “Sorry for your loss…”

“Pines ye’ve got ta’ promise me that ye’ll find whoever did t’is,”

“I-I’ll try,” Dipper turned his head back to the living fairy.

Danny nodded, “Ye’ bett’r lad, or it’ll only get wo’se,”

-

Dipper rushed into the Mystery “S”hack, straight to the counter where his sister sat. The girl herself had been on her phone, invested in whatever content she was looking at, although at the “bang” that sounded when Dipper opened the door she looked to her sibling. “What’s up Dipper?”

“Creatures have been-”

“Sh! Quieter, Dipper,” she said, putting her finger to his lips. She quickly brought her finger back to let her brother talk.

“Creatures have been dying in the forest in strange ways,” he replied in a hushed voice.

“What do you mean?”

“I just saw one of them- It looked like an accident but whoever did it left in a detail that proves that it wasn’t.” Dipper heaved in a breath as Mabel looked at him expectantly, “Their eyes were gone.”

“What? Like… not there?”

“A-huh,” Dipper said. Maybe he was a little excited compared to how he should be acting, “It looked like they had fallen through a break in their wing, quite convincing until you notice the… you know,”

“Lack of eyes?”

“Hm,” Mabel heaved in a breath after the hum of confirmation. She looked conflicted for a moment, letting out the deep breath she let in just moments before. 

“We need to talk, in private,” she muttered.

“Do you-”

“Dipper, just, go to my room, alright?”

“Okay…” Dipper said, stepping back, looking confused for a moment before slowly retreating to his twin's room.

Mabel’s room was already chock-full of colour and unfinished art pieces that hung on the walls. Dipper was still working on getting a bookcase to work with the roof shape in his room and her room was already like this? Wow. It took a few minutes but soon Mabel clicked the door behind her and walked up to Dipper. “Do you think it’s Bill?”

“What?”

“Dipper- you’ve been saying this whole time that you felt like something bad was happening, okay? A-and you’re right!” she let out a wild, false chuckle, “But do you think it’s Bill?”

“Uh…” Dipper gulped, “I-I don’t… think so,”

“What?” Mabel turned to him, her hands tugging at the length of her hair. 

“I think it’s… something worse- I don’t know what! But…”

“How could ANYTHING be worse than that?”

“Mabel…”

“Why is it us? Huh? Every time, WE’VE got to deal with this… BULLSHIT!” she threw her hands out in front of her, “Why?” tears were in her eyes, Dipper quickly hugged her.

“I don’t know, okay? But… we don’t have to do it alone, we’ve got the whole town this time,” he sighed, “Is there another reason that you’re sad?” 

“U-uh..” she paused, “Pacifica opened up about something to me…” she muttered. Dipper nodded in affirmation, letting Mabel know that he was listening. “She told me that- um…” she pulled back from the hug and wiped her eyes, “Sometimes… I-I shouldn’t be telling you,”

“Mabel-”

“-It isn’t my place, but… something bad is happening, okay? That’s all you need to know,”

“Okay- okay…” the twins had a short moment of silence.

The silence wasn’t overbearing or awkward, it was just… still, empty and void. Dipper opened and closed his mouth a few times, unsure of the right words to say.

“Do you want to visit her?” it was the only thing he could think of.

“But the shop-”

“Mabel, we can just get Soos to cover. He’ll get it, okay?”

“Yeah… yeah, okay,” Mabel sighed, rubbing her arm.

-

The walk to the Northwest mansion was just a quiet as the moment before they left. The two twins didn’t want to say anything, they didn’t know what to say even if they tried. The only noises shared between the two were the sounds of their footsteps on the concrete.

Birds chirped a worried song throughout the town streets as people made their daily commute, mostly the regular townsfolk were walking along the pavement with them. Although there was one thing that caught Dippers eyes.

A young woman, brown hair and wide brown eyes wearing a cream and brown fluffy jumper walking out of the bar. Mostly town citizens were the only ones in there and not really… well… women that resembled a twig more than a person. He looked away from her as soon as she looked at him.

“Mabel,” Dipper began, “Did you see that woman?”

“Yeah… strange, haven't seen her around before,”

“Me neither,”

“Probably just a tourist.”

“Yeah, you’re right,”

Not long after that they were at Pacifica's home, or, well, in front of the gates of it. Mabel pressed the small silver button to alert the residence of their presence. After a few seconds she pressed it again. Then once more before Dipper swatted her hand away. She stuck her tongue out at him as a tired voice came over the speaker.

“Northwest-”

“Pacifica!” Mabel let out, “Wanna go on a walk with me and Dipper?”

“Mabel- Uh…” there was a pause, “Yeah, sure, just… give me a moment, okay?”

“Okay.” Mabel fell into silence again.

A few minutes passed, no longer than fifteen, and Pacifica was making her way down to the slowly opening gates once again. She sent Dipper a small smile and hugged Mabel, who, in turn, picked up Pacifica as she squeezed her tight. Once the blond was set down she let out a small: “Hey,”.

Dipper shared a smile almost as small as her own, “Hey- Uh… to be honest, I don’t know where we’re going on this walk…” he chuckled, Mabel looked to be in thought before snapping her fingers y her head.

“The Statue!” She whisper-yelled.

“What?”

“Look- if there’s anything different with it we’ll know if it’s Bill or not!”

“Hold on, wait, what's going on?” Pacifica asked, confusion lacing her features.

“We’ll explain on the way- Come on!”

-

And so, they were at the statue. They did explain to Pacifica what had happened on the way, the trek into the shadowed forest was filled with hushed questions and answers, twigs snapping a leaves crunching beneath their feet. Maybe a few birds would release their song in a dark and twisted way. You didn’t need to be in there long to know that something was off with the wooded area.

What did they do at the statue? Not much. Dipper couldn’t bring himself to speak, it didn’t seem the others could either. 

There was an air around the statue that felt… strange. Stranger than the unordinary usual. It was as if it- he knew. Like Bill knew something bad was happening. Maybe…

There it was again, an electric blue flash of fire. They stumbled back slightly, looking to each other with wide eyes. They were shocked.

Still, they didn't move any more than that. They stayed as still as the statue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this took a while, I haven't had the best time with motivation when it comes to this "^^.
> 
> It also doesn't help that my writing style changed... you can kinda see where I left it off before the change.


End file.
